UN Envoy Urges Peaceful Resolution To Relocating Iraq's Iranian Exiles

Demonstrators protest outside Camp Ashraf, home to exiled Iranian opposition members, in Iraq's western Diyala province.

The UN's top official in Iraq has urged Baghdad to avoid violence in resolving the situation of more than 1,000 Iranian exiles currently located in a camp in Iraq.

The UN secretary-general's special representative for Iraq, Martin Kobler, also urged Iraq to tend to the needs of the residents of Camp Ashraf, where Iranian exiles, many of them members of a group known as the Mujahedin-e Khalq Organization currently reside.

In line with an agreement signed between the UN and Iraq last December, some two-thirds, or around 2,000 people, have been relocated to Camp Hurriya, a temporary location near Baghdad where their refugee status will be determined by the UN.

About 1,300 people in Camp Ashraf are still waiting to be relocated.